And our reward for all that cramming: PERU!
But to leave it at that would be to neglect our first experience in the yoga-esque dance of missionary flexibility.
Remember that show "Touched By An Angel." Now I always was kind of disturbed by the title of the show, especially in light of other pop-culture Biblical insights like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark or morally nebulous Buffy characters (who wants to be touched by those angels?!). But I think the Aeromexico agent in Houston might have been one of those angels in disguise you read about in spam e-mail messages. Or maybe she was just really nice. Regardless, Emily and I arrived at the ticket counter prepared to pay well over $400 in extra baggage fees due to most of our bags being extra and overweight. Emily mentioned (in a nudge-nudge fashion) that we were moving to Peru to teach and be missionaries, at which the agent proceeded to wink and charge us less than half of what we had been expecting due to their policies. W00t!
So it was a good start. Then we were told that our flight was delayed due to a sick pilot. No big deal, at least it happened when we were still on the ground. It became a bigger deal once we landed in Mexico City 25 minutes after our connecting flight took off.
This led to an extended stay in Mexico City (on Aeromexico's buck) due to their not being another flight to Lima until 5:30 the next evening. The airline comped us a hotel room and some meals, and Emily and I spent her birthday in Mexico City.
One of the cool things that happened in the midst of the chaos was we were able to make friends with a Peruvian newlywed couple traveling back from Cancun who had also been delayed. We were able to connect with them and even ventured into downtown Mexico City to spend our early afternoon. There's no way to really comprehend both the sheer magnitude of the population of Mexico City and the cheapness of their Metro until you have to push your way onto a train football style.
We were able to see a beautiful cathedral that reminded me of one of my favorite Tarkovsky films Andrei Rublyev and had a blast getting to know our new friends Chris and Vanessa. Turns out that Vanessa is a clothing designer and model on Peruvian television while Chris co-owns a limo business in New York City. They were good travel buddies and we are hoping they might make the trip to come hang out in Arequipa with us.
After all of that we made it to Peru. We are currently visiting the Berrocals (the family Emily lived with previously) in Lima and are set to attend some kind of dancing extravaganza this evening. I had to clarify with Ramiro that I wouldn't be required to dance. It's too soon to be busting my sweet moves in Peru. Or maybe I just don't want to be any more of a nerdy gringo than I already am.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Emily and I did not have any airport meltdowns in the midst of all of this. I'm giving the credit to the Holy Spirit, prayer, and a healthy dosing of JoAnn's amazing brownies.
